Unlock the power of research evidence in education to improve teaching and learning. Discover evidence-based strategies, innovative approaches, and actionable insights that can elevate teaching. These blogs explore new evidence, whilst exploring a range of research methods and practical approaches. Reflecting on research evidence use can help drive school and college improvement, so these blogs offer handy insights for that vital work.
What was more dangerous for sailors in centuries past: pirates, crushing canon, or storms and shipwrecks? The greatest scourge of sailors in the 16th and 18th centuries was… a lack of vitamin C. Scurvy – a dietary deficiency caused by a lack of vitamin C – resulted in an estimated 2 million
Making positive changes in schools is incredibly hard work. It typically involves lots of teachers who are naturally inclined to protect their hard-won habits. As such, it is crucial to draw upon their experience and expertise, whilst recognising their beliefs, challenges, and sensitively handling their natural hesitations. By asking simple
There are trillions of choices teachers make when they teach. This dizzying complexity makes teaching rewarding, tiring, stressful, and sometimes even thrilling. Understandably, faced with the complexity of the classroom, teachers are necessarily creative, but they also seek out stability and tranquillity. For many teachers, hearing calls for ‘disrupting education’
The importance of tending to pupils at the transition between primary and secondary school is well-established. The obvious focus, understandably, attends to the pastoral needs of pupils: making them feel safe and secure in their new ‘big school’ surroundings. Crucially, there is also an increasing recognition that making curriculum connections
Ch-ch-changes. After the trials and tribulations of the summer of 2020, renewed calls are being made to transform education and change how assessment is enacted in schools. For experienced teachers, it is a familiar refrain. In the Guardian, Melissa Benn has asked teachers and policy makers to “recognise the unique
When I was growing up I sought out books that mirrored my world. I can name the narratives that walked me through my tortured teens, or those books that helped me attempt proper adulting. From each reading, familiar character became both a reflection and a fragment of myself. When I
You can watch my short video on book gifting on my YouTube page, ‘Exploring Evidence in Education‘: If you cannot read, you cannot access the school curriculum and so much more beyond. If you have little or no access to reading, you are unlikely to practice reading habitually. In turn,
“In education, the only way to improve is to stop people doing good things, to give them time to do even better things.” Dylan Wiliam It appears like a trite piece of advice – ‘stop doing stuff’ – but in practice it is really hard to do in any walk of life.
Moving from primary school to secondary school, nursery to school, or school to college, is a seismic change for any child. The transition can be both exciting and frightening. As Covid closures has seen so many children left in limbo teetering on the cusp of moving schools, the thoughts of
This week saw the publication of the Education Endowment Foundation RISE (Research-leads Improving Students’ Education) Project. It was one of the first projects in England that attempted to mobilise the emerging role of ‘Research-lead’ into a more specific school improvement process, with related training and support. With the rise in
We don’t grade lessons anymore, right? That would be foolish, wouldn’t it. Back in 2013, Professor Rob Coe made a challenge to the teaching profession and OFSTED. He proved that judging lesson observations was not only ‘harder than we thought‘, but that grading lesson observations and ‘seeing learning’
“A man with conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him your facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and facts and he fails to see your point.” Leon Festinger Dorothy Martin was a charismatic leader with